My Type of Mum

A couple of years ago I got a birthday card that came in this envelope with my name in hand-rendered type. The question down the bottom in my Mum's handwriting reads, "Do you know this font? I think it's called The Fat." I love it.

Typo Tour: Nylex Plastics

At 7:24 on the morning of June 29, 2005, after 14 months of restoration costing $300,000, the Nylex clock was back on! And jammed. Time was standing still. Some sort of computer error. Fixed eventually, but now, mere months later, like some dodgy string of blinking globes around a Milk Bar sign, it's already lost lights again. Nylex's promise of "Every Time" now reads "Ever Time", which I find kind of amusing. Not as amusing, of course, as the time that I saw a glowing Red Rooster sign where the light had gone out in the 's', but "You'll tell the grandkids" experiences like that only come along every so often! In addition, the outlined 'N' in Nylex is also missing in action, so $300,000 well spent then.


I've never quite understood the appeal of the Nylex clock. I don't understand why it holds such a special place in the hearts of the community. It’s just a piece of corporate signage, isn’t it? Very old corporate signage, sure, but corporate signage none the less. It’s a nice treatment of the Nylex logo, with the lights and all, but if McDonalds or Nike rendered their logo in lights and bunged it on top of a silo for 44 years, would people be as enamoured? What's so special about Nylex? Do people just love their plastics so much that they now view Nylex as family? I guess people could love it because they've grown up with it as a part of the landscape, and now it's an icon of their childhood, or years gone by, or something?

So, what about the old Foxtel sign that used to sit below the Nylex clock? People hated that Foxtel sign. They weren’t even impressed by its enormous size, which you would have thought would count for something, given our love of Big things here in Australia. If the Foxtel sign had stuck around for 44 years, would opinions have changed? Would it have worked its way into our hearts, to the point that the general public would’ve been happy to pay to have it maintained? Would people view it with the warmth of nostalgia, and speak of it fondly like an old friend? Why is Nylex better than Foxtel?

Incidentally, the Foxtel sign was the largest sign in the Southern Hemisphere, and so bright that at night it lit up the rooms of the houses opposite it like day time. A friend of mine who worked for Foxtel told me that the residents took the company to court over the sign and its nova-like brightness. Telstra eventually came to an out-of-court settlement where they supplied every affected home with new, extra thick curtains! Creative thinking.

So Foxtel didn't last but Nylex is still there. Maybe it's because Nylex is representative of our inner suburban, working class roots? It represents all the factory workers who lived and toiled in Richmond before it became fashionable and expensive? The sign doesn't represent a company and its products, but a local narrative of hard work and hard conditions. Could be; it's not a history I can say I know much about.

Roadwork on the right

There's a road sign on the way to Ballarat that's always caught my eye, and on the weekend I finally stopped to get a photo.


I've never seen a Roadwork Ahead sign where the text is aligned on the right! How good is it?! I love it. And before you start stomping around in your size 12s, I'm well aware that it's just a normal sign with the "1km" removed, but take a second to dream with me, won't you? I think all road signs should be like this. I think this sign creates a sense of movement and of being on the road. Although maybe in this case the message should be to slow down, so centred would be better, but where the message is about speeding off, let's go for right alignment! Much more dynamic, lovely sense of movement. Might be confusing for right to left reading cultures, but it is in English, so if they don't know English it'll be confusing anyway. So no harm done. Right alignment. Good one.

Typo Tour: The Graham

I went on a Typo Tour around Melbourne on Sunday night, after attending a Typography Forum at Fed Square the night before. Organised by Stephen Banham of The Letterbox and Andrew Budge of Designland, the Tour was excellent; two bus loads of typeheads, taking in 26 typographic sites around Melbourne. The only problem was that it was held at night (to avoid traffic, I guess) and most of the sites would have been better viewed in daylight. So I didn't take any photos to post here while on the tour, but over the weeks to come I hope to go back to most of the sites and get some good shots.

Here's one of "The Graham", an old hotel on Swanston Street that closed down years ago, but whose signage remains. The building is now occupied by the Melbourne Sports Depot. Such a beautiful script, and such a beautiful canvas.


I love the name "The Graham" for a hotel. It reminds me of the greatly missed 'Gary' milk from a few years ago. A bold marketing idea that apprarently never clicked with the public and went the way of the late lamented Mars Milk. RIP. I tried to send a positive message to the manufacturers by buying as much Gary as possible, but it was too sweet, even for me, and I just couldn't keep it up.


I would have loved to have sipped a Gary at The Graham. Sadly, not to be.